February 18, 2016 Wendy Harris
Some Basics About the CAO update system.
This explains about Best Available Science and how GMA regulations and administrative laws (WACs) work with regard to the CAO update.
Let me explain how the citizen advisory committee worked. Executive Louws appointed 3 progressives and 5 conservatives, so that a property rights/tea party mentality permeated the entire process. Roger Almskaar, who was keeping BIA, realtor and the Conservation District in the loop on his projects, kept insisting that no one has to follow WACs and they are just suggestions.I kept hearing that there is no such thing as Best Available Science, and that trees do not provide shade for streams. So I finally wrote this and sent it to both groups. It is focused mainly on one type of critical area, habitat conservation areas, but the logic would apply throughout.
[Link to the .doc file for the images below]
Read Wendy’s post in the Whatcom Hawk Facebook group here.
